Swiss commodities trading giant Gunvor has had its planned acquisition of Lukoil’s international assets blocked by the US. Lukoil had announced the deal for its €19.1bn ($22bn) international portfolio on 30 October (MEES, 31 October), but in an incendiary 6 November post on X, the US Treasury Department posted “As long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit.”
Although Gunvor’s origins lie in the post-Soviet trading of Russian oil, the firm has sought to distance itself from the Kremlin since Russian co-founder Gennady Timchenko exited in 2014 just ahead of being sanctioned by the US for links to Putin (MEES, 25 April 2014). (CONTINUED - 327 WORDS)
